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I feel like you've never actually tried to make tool with Claude Code or similar because BASIC is not it - that's viewing the past with rose coloured glasses. H

by djmips 1y ago

I feel like you've never actually tried to make tool with Claude Code or similar because BASIC is not it - that's viewing the past with rose coloured glasses. However I understand your central thesis that we could have actually put effort into making something that average folk could use to effectively leverage computers in a way that requires 'code'. But you know we have tried - we have Scratch - we have all of the node graph spaghetti in Unreal Engine and others - I am a programmer but I finally sat down and went through the process of making a working finished tool in a language I'm unfamliar with and using Claude Code and it went really well. And if folks like Ben Krasnow of Applied Science channel are using AI coding tools that they would formally take them 3 to 5 x longer to struggle through unfamiliarity then practically it's working - although I also take a nod to your 'at what cost'. But the idea that we could have been living in some Utopian BASIC derived alternate uinverse seems a little bit optimistic to me. I like AI coding (if I don't have to think of the costs)

bitwize 1y ago
I'm not saying BASIC is it. But it was good enough in its day—my father used it to write engine simulations. It was the first language to attack the problem "getting computing nonprofessionals to write their own programs for their own needs" and it achieved that very well by the standards of the 01960s-01980s. But the fact that every computer shipped with a language that allowed users to get started with programming right away, was a noble thing we should have sought to preserve even in the present day. Scratch is for kids, and node spaghetti presents the usual no-code issues. HolyC comes close, but you know, Terry Davis. An acquired taste. I was kinda hoping that language would be Python, but even that requires ceremony these days.

by djmips 1y ago

bitwize 1y ago

I'm not saying BASIC is it. But it was good enough in its day—my father used it to write engine simulations. It was the first language to attack the problem "getting computing nonprofessionals to write their own programs for their own needs" and it achieved that very well by the standards of the 01960s-01980s. But the fact that every computer shipped with a language that allowed users to get started with programming right away, was a noble thing we should have sought to preserve even in the present day. Scratch is for kids, and node spaghetti presents the usual no-code issues. HolyC comes close, but you know, Terry Davis. An acquired taste. I was kinda hoping that language would be Python, but even that requires ceremony these days.